WELCOME BACK: Sean Avery, who was exiled to Hartford before the season started, is expected to rejoin the Rangers in time for Thursday's home game vs. Anaheim. Photo: Anthony J. Causi

In life, desperate times call for desperate measures.

With the Rangers, desperate times call for Sean Avery.

Again.

Because nine games deep into a season in which the Rangers have won only three times (3-3-3) while unable to reproduce the Black-and-Blueshirt identity that defined last season, management has decided to commute Avery’s sentence and bring him out of AHL exile.

Avery, who was assigned to the AHL Whale after clearing waivers on Oct. 5, was placed on re-entry waivers at noon today that expire at noon tomorrow.

If he clears as expected, Avery would be eligible to make his 2011-12 Rangers’ debut Thursday against the Ducks at the Garden, where banners and chants in his support have marked each of the first two home contests.

Avery was waived following a training camp in which he was given no opportunity to claim a spot, with the decision to demote the winger apparently having been made before the club convened in September. Coach John Tortorella explained the decision in Stockholm by saying that the team simply had better players than Avery.

When Avery cleared waivers general manager Glen Sather told The Post that it would be possible for the people’s choice to play his way back onto the Rangers.

Avery, who had been suffering from a shoulder injury, did not play in his first game until Friday night at Adirondack. He scored an empty-netter in that one before getting the shootout winner in Saturday’s Connecticut victory in Worcester.

Recalling Avery, who would not have been eligible for tonight’s Garden match against the Sharks had he been placed on re-entry yesterday because of the NHL’s 48-hour weekend waivers regulation, also ties into growing concern about the condition of Mike Rupp’s left knee.

The plan entering the season was for Rupp — who signed a three-year, $4.5 million free agent contract July 1 — to replace Avery on the left side of the Identity Line featuring Brian Boyle in the middle and Brandon Prust on the right.

But Rupp’s knee has limited him since camp. Now, after being sidelined the last two games, Rupp may need surgery following another exam today.

“There is concern,” Tortorella said yesterday. “It’s a problem.”

The Rangers had previously referred to Rupp as having “a cranky knee” with no structural defects. Yesterday, though, Tortorella declined to speculate exactly what the problem might be or what medical course of action might be required.

“I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves,” Tortorella said. “He’s going to another doctor [today] and then we’ll see where it all goes. We’re having discussions.”

Sources have told The Post that talk about recalling Avery first originated after the Rangers’ 4-2 defeat on the Island on Oct. 15, but No. 16’s injury made that a moot point.

But it’s not moot any longer.

Just like in February 2007, when the Rangers were floundering and Sather reached out to Los Angeles to trade for Avery, and just like in February 2009, when the Rangers were floundering and Sather reached out to Dallas to bring Avery out of the black hole into which he had been consigned following his “sloppy seconds” comments and back to New York via the re-entry process, just like then, the Rangers are reaching out for Avery.